Merchant sales, profits, and other indicators of merchant performance are often affected by various trends, events and business practices, widely ranging from employee performance to local weather patterns. However, merchants may have very little access to information identifying inexplicable and/or unpredictable variations in their performance, and even less access to explanations of the variations and/or recommendations for addressing these variations. Further, a merchant's inability to identify inexplicable and/or unpredictable variations in the merchant's own performance may be further compounded by limited access to information about other merchants. For example, merchants may not have access to much information about other merchants within a shared geographic region or merchants offering similar items for sale. Accordingly, it can sometimes be difficult for merchants to obtain sufficient information for growing and improving their businesses.